Introduction
Ereshkigal is the queen of the underworld (Kur/Irkalla), ruling absolutely over the land of the dead, and sister of Inanna, the goddess of love and war above.
Family
- Father: Anu (An)
- Spouse: Nergal (married)
- Spouse: Gugalanna (married)
- Children: Namtar
- Siblings: Enki (Ea), Enlil
Ruler Twice Confronted
When Inanna descended into the underworld to challenge her authority, Ereshkigal had her stripped, judged, and killed on sight, asserting the underworld's own harsh law that nothing living leaves it unchanged, if at all. In a separate myth, Nergal and Ereshkigal, the war god Nergal insulted a messenger Ereshkigal had sent to the heavens, was summoned below to answer for it, and instead seized her throne by force, becoming her husband and co-ruler of the dead. Some Sumerian traditions additionally name Gugalanna, the "Bull of Heaven," as an earlier husband of Ereshkigal, distinct from Nergal; both traditions are recorded here rather than choosing one as canonical.
Mesopotamian religion spans Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian sources composed and recopied across nearly three thousand years, so names, genealogies, and even a deity's role often shift between traditions (Sumerian An/Enki/Inanna alongside their Akkadian/Babylonian forms Anu/Ea/Ishtar); the account above follows the most widely attested version, usually as consolidated in the Babylonian Enuma Elish or the standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh.